Snow-Goose 



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flying at the head of the flock, have been taken for snow-geese. Albinism, as is well known, 

 is a pathological or abnormal phenomenon, which apparently may occur in birds from their 

 very hatching (sometimes, after several moultings, it happens that albinism disappears, in 

 consequence of the removal of the inducing cause), or in the prime of life, or, finally, in old 

 age. I suggest, then, that in such cases old birds, which have for many years led the flock, 

 having from some cause contracted albinism, still continue to guide the flock in their new 

 dress. Of course, all this is only hypothesis, but the same is true also of the identification 

 of the snow-goose in such white specimens. 



Somewhat more exact data as to the geographical distribution of this species and the 

 form Chen nivalis have been obtained in regard to North America. Thus Chen hyperboreus 

 is met with over the whole of the western half of North America, and breeds, besides, on the 

 Arctic western shore, also in Alaska, descending in winter through the whole country lying 

 between the Pacific Ocean and the valley of the Mississippi. It abounds from Alaska and 

 the Washington district to South Carolina ; and reappears in great numbers in the middle 

 and western parts of California in winter, keeping chiefly to the fens and plains situated near 

 the sea, or occurring on the sandy shoals and spits projecting into the latter. Here the birds 

 arrive from the north in October, and stay till March, when, simultaneously with other geese, 

 they again take wing to the north. That the snow-geese appearing in winter in Japan are 

 natives of North America I strongly doubt, since it is practically certain that birds come 

 there from Northern Asia to spend the winter. 



An astonishing fact, it seems to me, is the migration of this goose to the island of 

 Maui, as mentioned by the Hon. Walter Rothschild in his Avifauna of Lay зап. 



The above, then, are the general limits within which the snow-goose has been hitherto 

 found. 



The food of the snow-goose, at least in winter, consists apparently almost exclusively 

 of vegetables, such as shoots of various grasses, reeds, etc. ; but it is very probable that the 

 young birds vary their diet with insects and molluscs, as is the case with the majority of 

 other species of geese. In summer, however, they gladly devour berries. 



In general, undisturbed birds of this species are fairly tame, but they quickly recog- 

 nise danger, and then become as unapproachable as the majority of other geese. According 

 to the evidence of some observers (such as Pallas), these geese are rather silent, but 

 sometimes during flight they utter a sharp cry, like Khouk, although they do not call 

 continuously like the brants. Despite their wariness, man has succeeded in outwitting 

 them, as they readily enter decoys of members of their own species, paying for their folly 

 with their lives in large numbers. It is said that in North America their salted carcasses 

 are kept by the natives some two years, and are then considered good eating. 



Their summer food, according to Sir John Richardson, is mainly composed of cane- 

 shoots and insects, in autumn of the berries of Empetrum nigrum. 



The eggs of this goose are of a regular oval form, and white. Their length is about 

 3 in. ( = 76 mm.), and the transverse diameter 2 in. ( = 51 mm.). 1 The number of eggs in a 



1 According to a communication by Mr. G. F. Gobel, an egg of a snow-goose, in the Zoological Museum at St. Petersburg, has the 

 following measurements — 



Breadth, 52.5 mm. ( = 2.06 in.) 

 Length, 89.5 „ ( = 3.52 in.) 

 This is very probably an egg of Chen nivalis. 



In regard to the structure of the egg, this zoologist says : " The grain of the shell resembles that of the white-fronted goose, but the 

 elevations are more conspicuous and less close, so that there is room for dirt to lodge in the interstices, as is seen in the specimen above 

 mentioned. Mr. Gobel does not indicate its origin." 



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